Episode Transcript
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I went back and looked. I
preached on this particular pass eats four times
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over the years and each sermon has
has emphasized a different aspect of the text.
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There's a lot here to chew on. It's a very rich text.
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So what I want to do is
I want to read this entire text,
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versus one through eleven, but then
I want to go back and sort of
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camp out for a while on verse
five, and that's where Matthew quotes the
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Old Testament Prophet Zachariah, Chapter Nine, verse so this is God's word for
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us this morning, so let's pay
heed to it now. When they drew
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near to Jerusalem and came to Beth
fudge, to the Mount of Olives,
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then Jesus sent two disciples saying to
them, go into the village in front
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of you and immediately you will find
a donkey tiede and a cult with her
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untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you,
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you shall say the Lord needs them
and he will send them at once.
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This took place to fulfill what was
spoken by the Prophet, saying say to
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the daughter of Zion, behold,
your king is coming to you, humble
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and mounted on a donkey and on
a Colt, the full of a beast
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of burden. The disciples went and
did as Jesus had directed them. They
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brought the donkey and the Colt and
put on them their cloaks and he sat
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on them. Most of the crowd
spread their cloaks on the road. Others
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cut branches from the trees and spread
them on the road. And the crowds
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that went before him and that followed
him were shouting Hosanna to the son of
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David, blessed is he who comes
in the name of the Lord, Hosanna
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in the highest. And when he
entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred
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up, saying who is this,
and the crowd said this is the prophet
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Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. Please
pray with me, Lord. We we
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live in a context, for there
are many voices that clamor for our attention,
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that demand our response, that claim
that we owe our allegiance to them.
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Some are summer voices of our own
lust and ambitions and pride and selfishness
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within some are the clamoring voices of
the world all around us. Help US
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pleased by the powerful work of the
Holy Spirit now to hear, above the
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din the cacophony of competing voices,
the clear voice of our say savior saying
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to us this is the way walk
in. It give us ears to hear
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what the Holy Spirit says today to
his church in Jesus name. Amen,
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please be seated. You know,
the most important I've ever lived was was
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that of Jesus Christ, and the
most important part of that life arguably was
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the momentous week that ended it.
The week began with Jesus Entry into Jerusalem
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on what we call Palm Sunday today, and that week included, if you
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recall, his second cleansing of the
temple. It included his final teaching,
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his arrest, his trial and crucifixion, and it ended with his resurrection from
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the dead on Easter Sunday. Eight
momentous days in all. You know this,
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this final week. It's so important
that the gospels give a lot of
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space to it. Jesus lived thirty
three years. His Public Ministry was for
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three years, but large portions of
the Gospel accounts are given over to the
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events of this last eight days of
his life. Matthew devotes one fourth to
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it. Mark Uses one three of
his Gospel look gives a fifth of his
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chapters to the events of this last
week and most remarkable of all, one
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half of John's Gospel deals with us
this last week of Jesus life. Taken
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together, there are eighty nine chapters
in the four Gospels and twenty nine and
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one half of these, or one
third, recount what happened between Jesus Triumphal
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Entry into Jerusalem and His resurrection eight
days. So this is an important week
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and I think we know that the
reason it's important is that these are the
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climactic events not only of Jesus earthly
life, these are the climactic events of
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all history. They were planned before
the foundation of the world and, dear
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ones, are salvation from sin and
from God's wrath to pin completely on them.
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So this week begins with what we
call the triumphal entry of Jesus into
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Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Now we've
read this account in Matthew, but all
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the gospels record this event and I
think the first significant thing they tell us
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about it is that Jesus arranged everything
that was going to happen. You know,
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this wasn't just a case of some
spontaneous outbursts of excitement on the part
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of the people. That was certainly
part of it, that was there,
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but this was something the Lord carefully
planned and he did that in order to
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make a statement. And look at
the text. Matthew says that is Jesus
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and the disciples were approaching Beth foge
and, which is an outlying district of
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Jerusalem. Jesus sent to the disciples
on ahead of them to procure this donkey
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and a cold go into the village
in front of you and immediately you will
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find a donkey, tide and a
Colt with her untie them and bring them
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to me. If anyone says anything
to you, you shall say the Lord
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Needs Him and he will send them
at once. Now, Mark and Luke
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tell us that someone did ask why
the disciples were taking the Colt, but
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they released it when they learned that
it was the Lord who needed it.
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So why did Jesus do this?
Why did he arrange to enter Jerusalem in
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this particular way? You know he
didn't. He certainly didn't need to ride
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into Jerusalem. Jesus was a walker. He'd already walked the entire distance from
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Galilee. In fact, this is
the only occasion that I could find were
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we hear of Jesus doing anything but
walking in his earthly life. Obviously he
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wanted to make a point, he
wanted to make a statement of some kind.
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He wanted to take a symbolic action, if you will. You know,
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it's interesting if you go back and
look, you'll see that the prophets
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often did this. You see,
this was part and parcel of their repertoire,
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so to speak. You remember when
Jeremiah was told to buy a clay
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jar and then he was to break
it to symbolizing the breaking of the nation,
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or or when he he bought a
field to symbolize God's commitment to bring
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the people back to the land of
Israel after their captivity. You know,
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or think of Homer, of Joseiah, I'm sorry, Joseah, who was
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told to marry Gomer, who would
be unfaithful to him, to symbolize how
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Israel was being unfaithful to God himself. So well, I think Jesus is
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doing the same sort of thing here. Well, what was he trying to
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do? What kind of statement was
he making by writing into the city as
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he did? Well, the meaning
of what Jesus was arranging to do is
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found in matthews quote of Zachariah nine. Matthew tells us in verse four that
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all this took place to fulfill what
was spoken by the Prophet the what did
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the Prophet say? It's in verse
five say to the Daughters of Zion,
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behold, your king is coming to
you, humble and mounted on a donkey
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and on a cult the full of
a beast of burden. You know,
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if you were to go back and
look at the context of this verse,
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we would see that it's taken from
a section of Zachariah that prophesized what was
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going to happen to Israel in the
future. And what it prophesizes is the
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coming of God's King, the coming
of the Messiah, the coming of the
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anointed of God. And that's what
Matthew is showing here. He shows Jesus
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is coming to his capital city as
the rightful king of Israel. But there's
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a little there's a little hitch here. This was a different kind of king
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than many people expected. He wasn't
a warlike monarch. He didn't come riding
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in on a big white charger to
marshal the troops to action. He wouldn't
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like that he didn't do that.
Rather, Jesus comes, verse five,
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says, Humbly and mounted on a
donkey. You know, I found out
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in those days donkeys were a little
bit more noble, and perhaps they are
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today. Back then kings did in
fact often ride on donkeys. If you
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recall David, when David appointed Solomon
as to be his successor as the King
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of Israel, he put him on
his own personal mule. He took him
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to Gahan to be annointed by Zadok
the priest and Nathan the Prophet. That
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sort of thing happened back then.
So the donkey was not in and of
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itself a humble form of transportation,
but a warrior would never go into battle
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on a donkey. So the donkey
is significant. The donkey did symbolize that
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Jesus was coming in peace, not
for war, that his reign would be
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peaceful. You know, when I
think of all that, what came to
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mind was that great hymn lead on, Oh king of eternal which is going
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to be our closing him this morning, which makes this same point. For
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not with swords loud clashing, nor
roll of stirring drum, but deeds of
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love and mercy. The heavenly kingdom
comes. With deeds of love and mercy
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the heavenly kingdom comes. And that's
the way Jesus came into Jerusalem at First
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Palm Sunday. Now I have to
point this out. When Matthew Coach Zachariah,
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Chapter Nine, verse nine, here
in Verse Five, he doesn't quote
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him exactly. He leaves a couple
of phrases out. The actual verse from
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Zachariah goes like this. Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion, Shout Aloud,
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oh daughter of Jerusalem, behold,
your king is coming to you righteous
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and having salvation. Is He humble
and mounted on a donkey, on a
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Colt, on the foal of a
donkey? Rejoice. Let me read that
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again. Rejoice greatly, Old Daughter
of Zion, shout aloud, old daughter
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of Jerusalem. Behold, your king
is coming to you righteous and having salvation.
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Is He humble and mounted on a
donkey, on a Colt, the
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fall of a donkey. You know
it's it's true that whenever God would have
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his people especially glad or joyful,
joyful or rejoicing or blessed, it's always
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in himself. So you see,
when Zachariah writes, rejoice greatly. The
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reason were to do that is behold, your king is coming to you.
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In other words, our chief reason
for rejoicing is the presence of King Jesus
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in our midst. It's always been
that way, it always will be that
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way. You know, the shorter
catechism, the Westminster shorter catechism, says
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that our chief end is to glorify
this king and to enjoy him forever.
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So jackariah goes on. He shows
why the Lord, our King, is
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such a source of joy. It's
because he's righteous, he's just, he
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brings US salvation. You see,
Jesus has completely worked out this difficult problem
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of how can God be righteous and
just and yet save sinners? How can
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he do that? Well, God
can do that because Jesus is righteous,
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he's just, he's sinless and these
own personal character he's righteous and that he
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has borne the penalty of sin.
He's been cleared from the sin which he
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voluntarily he took upon himself and,
having endured this terrible ordeal of the cross,
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he satisfied God's wrath and he is
saved and his people are saved with
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him, and we admire the righteousness
which marks his reign. Were grateful for
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the salvation with which he brings to
us, and so we cry out Hosanna
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to the son of David. Blessed
is he who comes in the name of
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the Lord. Hosanna in the highest
you know, and it's written of him,
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that this coming King is humble and
gentle or, as I think the
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King James Version says, he is
lowly. Would certainly can't be said of
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most kings and powerful people that you
and I know today. You know his
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outward state, perfectly manifest the humility
and the gentleness of his character. He
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appears to be what he really is. He conceals nothing from his chosen people.
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What you see is what you get. Now he rides in on a
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donkey and not some prancing white horse, which we've noted. That's what warriors
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chose for their triumphal entries, instead
of court attendance and their fancy poofy robes.
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He was surrounded by common peasants and
fishermen, children, the humblest of
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men and the youngest of the race
shouted his praise. Branches of trees,
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cloaks of friends were spread all over
the road. Now this was a spontaneous
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expression of love from friends. It's
not the stage pageantry that you typically see
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with earthly kings. Now, this
king is totally different from earthly kings that
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we know of. He's lonely,
he's gentle, he's humble. Now that's
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what his entry into Jerusalem set on
that first palm Sunday so many years ago.
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He came as a different kind of
king, and that's what I want
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us to sort of explore and the
time that's left to us this morning,
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I want us to look a bit
more closely at the loneliness of this king
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who comes to us, and I
want us to thank first, just for
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a few minutes, of how this
lonliness is actually manifested in our Lord Jesus.
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What does it look like? How
is it displayed in his life?
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What are the key aspects of this
loneliness? Then I want us to think
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for just a moment of what that
means for us today. What are some
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of the applications to us today?
What are some of the lessons we can
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learn from the loneliness of our King? So how is this loneliness displayed in
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our or Jesus Christ? I've just
picked out a few first I can't help
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but think of the loneliness of Christ
and even undertaking my salvation. Why would
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he even consider rescuing a sinful man
like me or you? You know,
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Man Without Sin, as God first
made him, is certainly a noble creature.
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You know, the Bible says that
he was made a little lower than
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the angels. But, dear ones, as a center, man is not
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noble. He's vile, he's base, vulgar, arrogant and dishonorable. He's
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worthy only to be destroyed, and
in this state he can make no claims
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against God. Now, God would
be perfectly within his rights to blot him
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completely out of existence. Yet this
eternal God condescended, he bowed down from
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his high throne in heaven to redeem
and sanctify the sons of men. You
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know, at best we're frail creatures, born yesterday, we die today.
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We're like green leaves in the forest
for a while and then our autumn comes,
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we fade and the wind carries us
away. And yet, for such
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frail and vile creatures, the Lord
of Glory came to this sin plagued earth
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and saved his people. Now think
of the loneliness and the humility of our
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Lord to do that, to come
to earth and associate with people like that,
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and not only to do that,
but to want to do that and
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even to delight in doing that.
And you see, it's precisely here that
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he showed his loneliness. He came
and actually assumed our nature. This is
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wonderful. Here we have a free
spirit voluntarily incasing himself in human clay,
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a pure spirit willingly becoming a partaker
of flesh and blood. This is wonderful
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loneliness. The strong is encompassed with
infirmity and weakness. The infinitely holy becomes
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a part art of a race of
people who are notorious for their sin and
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their ungodliness. The infinite God unites
himself with a human body. He's born
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into our infancy, he grows up
into our youth, he works through our
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manhood, he accomplishes a life much
like our own, dear ones. This
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is a miracle of loneliness. No, furthermore, our Lord manifested his true
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loneliness here on Earth by carrying out
in full measure the part of a servant.
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Effasians to versus six through eight says
that although Jesus was in the form
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of God. He did not count
equality with God a thing to be grasped,
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but made himself nothing, taking the
form of a servant. Being born
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in the likeness of man and being
found in human form, he humbled himself
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by becoming obedient to the point of
death, even death on a cross.
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He made himself of no reputation.
He became a servant of servants. You
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know, Jesus could, he could
truthfully say to his disciples, you call
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me master and Lord it and it's
true, because I am. Yet he
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their master and Lord. What did
he do? He washed their feet,
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giving them an example of how they
were to serve each other after he was
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gone. Dear ones, it is
a wonderful thing that the Lord of all
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should have become the servant. Let
me just keep you thinking a moment longer
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about the Lord's lowliness by having you
remember his lifelong poverty. You know,
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Jesus never directs his disciples to espouse
poverty. Never did that unless it's for
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his sake. Only if riches were
keeping someone from him, such as the
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rich young ruler, that he say, sell all and give it to the
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poor and come follow me. But
it was important to his own personal work,
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that he should become poor that his
people might be made rich, and
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this he cheerfully and dure. You
know, think about it. He was
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born in a borrowed cradle, in
a borrowed stable. He lived most of
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his life in borrowed houses, living
upon the charity of his followers, and
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when he rested, it was often
in a borrowed bed. The Fox's head
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holes, but he had no place
to lay his head. He preached from
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a borrowed boat and when he died
he was buried in a borrowed too.
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But the interesting thing about all that
is that he never seemed uneasy about it.
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He never seemed uncomfortable in and around
this poverty. It never bothered him
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in the least. In this poverty
he magnified his loneliness and humility. And
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Look at the people he associated with. You know, at times I see
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more of his loneliness in them than
in anyone else. You know, Jesus,
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who was in all respects superior to
everybody. He never played this superior
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person card once in his life.
He never once put on airs, he
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was never arrogant. Now he sat
next to a well and he talked to
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a woman. His disciples marveled at
that. They couldn't believe that he would
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do that. That was something that
rabbi is just didn't do. Back then,
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we read in scripture that hated tax
colaries, tax collectors and centers gathered
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around him. He associated with prostitutes. He ate with these people. See,
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these were the dregs, these were
the outcasts of society. Yet Jesus
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always had a kind word for them. His rule was he that comes to
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me. I will never cast out. He received little children. Nobody back
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then ever listen to children. But
you recall when his disciples rebuked the people
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for bringing children to him. Jesus
rebuked them and he said let the little
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children come to me and do not
hinder them for two such belongs the Kingdom
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of Heaven. See, Jesus accepted
little children as the pattern of the kind
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of people who would enter his kingdom, and he was completely at home with
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them. He liked being around kids. You know, I think it's absolutely
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true that proud men seldom care for
children and, for that matter, children
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seldom care for proud men to but
our lord and his true loneliness of heart,
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loved children and they loved him because
he wouldn't proud and I would have
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you note the Lonliness of our Lord
by his patient bearing up under accusations.
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You know it. Just consider all
the false and foul things said about Jesus
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and he's lifetime. People said he
was a Drunkard, he said he was
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a wine bibber. The charge must
have grieved him, but he didn't get
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angry, he didn't threaten his accusers. They said he had a devil.
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He did answer that, but he
confounded his accusers by my making them see
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the absurdity, if you will,
of the charge. Because if the devil
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was in Jesus fighting against the devil, then the devil must have been divided
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against himself and his kingdom would soon
come to an end. You know,
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towards the end of his life,
Jesus enemies gathered up all these charges.
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You recall, they brought them the
pilot, but Jesus never answered them.
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He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth,
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like a lamb that has led to
the slaughter and like a sheep that,
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before it Shears, is silent.
So he opened not his mouth. In
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silence, he maintained his loneliness.
And then, finally, I think as
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the crown of his loneliness, Jesus
died. This king laid down his life
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for his people. And here's the
thing. It wasn't some glorious death in
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battle. He didn't die amidst the
tears of a grateful nation who mourned for
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him. Know, he died with
criminals. He died at the Common Cross.
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He died a MR crowd of doubters
and scoffers, where felons cast contempt
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upon him as he hung between them. If you're the son of God,
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then come down from this cross you
see the endurance. That kind of scorn
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is the utmost proof, I think, of a loneliness of spirit, a
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loneliness a gentleness, a humility which
you and I humbly admire and feebly imitate
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but which we can never equal.
So those are just, I think,
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some of the manifestations of loneliness of
this king who comes to us today.
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Well, what are some of the
things that we can learn from this loneliness
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of our Lord? What does it
mean for us? How could we apply
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that to our lives today? Well, I think the first obvious lesson which
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we've all come to is that we
are called to be lowly as Jesus is
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lowly. You know, some might
say you. Well, I I try
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to be lowly, I try to
be humble. I'd like to think that
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I'm a tender hearted and sensitive in
my dealings with things and people, but
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I don't think it works that way. You know, you can't try to
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act lowly and humble. You have
to be lowly and then, I think,
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will naturally act in a humble manner. You know, I shouldn't be,
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but I'm always amazed at how much
pride there is in the most modest
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of people. Now, how we
condemn pride, but don't we often believe
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that it would be nice if everybody
was as humble as we are. You
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know, we boast that we absolutely
detest boasting. We flatter ourselves that we
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hate flattery, but deep down we
love the praise of men. We love
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it. Dear ones, we have
to pray that God would make us slowly,
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would make us humble. See,
if we become the lowliest of the
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lowly, it certainly won't be much
of a stretch on our part. We'll
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only come down to the point which
we should never have left in the first
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place. So I think that's one
thing. That's the obvious lesson. That's
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the obliss obvious application. You know, I think we also need to learn
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to bear up under the false accusations
and slander, dislike our Lord. Did
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you know how hard that is?
For most of it it's this is so
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hard for me to do that.
And now I hear that somebody has said
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something bad about me. And what
do I do? I get on my
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high horse and I want to respond, to retaliate, to make it right,
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regardless of the cause. How dare
that person to fame my character?
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He can't be allowed to do that. So what do I do? I
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far off a tweet, you know, studying the record straight. You know,
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I think a lot of Christians lose
their balance when their misrepresented. The
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lamb starts to roar like a lion. And often what happens? Churches are
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torn apart, families ruined, just
to avenge a hasty word. That certainly
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wasn't the spirit of our blessed master. Oh that the Lord would stamp out
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our pride, make us lowly and
humble in heart, that we would submit
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to wrong rather than risk resistance.
Let the Lord be our Avenger. Well,
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let me close with this. You
know, Jesus says that we're to
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be lowly and humble and gentle.
There should be nothing harsh or rude about
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the demeanor of a Christian. We
should always be kind and courteous and consider
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it to others, just like our
Lord was. But I don't always manifest
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those characteristics and I suspect that there
are some out there that don't do it
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either. You know the Apostle Paul. He was writing from a prison cell
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in Rome and he ends a letter
to his beloved church in Philippi by saying
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all the saints greet you, especially
those of Caesar's household. Now most of
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us just pass right over that little
postscript to this letter, but there's something
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very important here that speaks directly to
what we've been talking about. You know,
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if you recall, Nero at that
time was the emperor of Rome.
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He was the Caesar of Rome,
and he was not a very pleasant person.
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I'm told he even killed his mother. Yet the Lord Jesus Christ could
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enable there to be Christians Evil and
even in this evil man's house, this
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evil man's palace. Now just think
for a moment how difficult it must have
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been to be a Christian in that
place. Know their lives and liberty must
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have been in constant danger. They
must have gotten out of bed every morning
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thinking that this might be their very
last day on earth. And yet here's
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the amazing thing. Even in the
midst of these trials and difficulties, these
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Christians did not forget to think about
other people. They remembered their brothers and
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sisters in Philippi, even though they'd
never seen those people, they never seen
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those people in the flesh. And
so when they heard that the Great Apostle
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of the gentiles was riding to the
Philippian Church, what did they do?
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They took care to send a kind
message to them. All the saints greet
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you, especially those of Caesar's household. You know, there's something expressly beautiful
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in that little message. See,
it gives a brief picture, if you
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will, of the ways and the
manners of these early Christians. It shows
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me that there was nothing rough and
hard and stern and harsh about their Christianity.
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No, they were a warm hearted, loving, genial, considerate,
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kind, sensitive people. They weren't
entirely taken up with themselves and their own
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duties, their own crosses, their
own conflicts and trials, they could and
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did think of others. You know, courtesy and consideration and gentleness and lowliness
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toward others. Those are Christian graces
which I think don't receive enough attention today.
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Some Christians behave in such a way
that one might think that they thought
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it a Christian duty to be rude. But a person who is led by
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this spirit ought to be more courteous
and polite than others. He should have
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within him the roots of all true
courtesy, humility and loneliness. Just like
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our Lord, he will be lowly
in his own eyes, willing to count
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everyone better than himself and more worthy
of honor, attention and respect. He
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will be ready to take the lowest
place if that's necessary. He will not
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be always thinking of self, of
self's ways, of self's desires, of
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self's wishes. Rather, his great
aim, like his master, will be
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to serve others. You know,
I wish that more of Christian today thought
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more of adorning their doctrine and making
their religion lovely, beautiful and attractive in
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the eyes of men by being more
humble and gracious. You know, one
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of my fears from this sermon this
morning is that some of you will think
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that I'm making way way too much
out of this little, this lowly gentle
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humble demeanor thing, and it's just
small potatoes in the grand scheme of things.
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But is it really small potatoes?
You know, a demeanor of kindness,
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a readiness to sympathize with others,
to weep with them that weep,
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rejoice with them that rejoice, a
willingness to offer assistance even when it seems
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like unlikely to be appreciated, a
kind message in time of trouble or a
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cot, a kind inquiry in time
of sickness, and all of that may
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seem like small potatoes, but I
want to suggest they're not as small as
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a lot of people think. You
see, people don't forget those sorts of
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things. Actions like this tend to
increase your influence. They help open a
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door of usefulness. They make people
more willing to hear what you have to
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say for the cause of Christ.
You See, when people see that you're
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truly lowly, gentle and humble and
that you sincerely care for them, they're
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more open, I think, to
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I believe
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that. I firmly believe that so
dar ones I come today to encourage you
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to pray earnestly for the grace to
be lowly. We need to do that
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because none of us are like that
by nature. By nature, you and
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I are out for ourselves, and
this is the only way of triumph,
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this is the way of ultimate victory. It's not in strength and swords,
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but in weakness, in humility and
lowliness. Nor think again of the words
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of that great hymn, for not
with swords, loud clashing or roll of
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stirring drums, but deeds of love
and mercy the heavenly kingdom comes. So
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enough said, and I leave the
subject now to your calm consideration. Be
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Lowly like your king who comes to
you. Well, indeed, would it
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be for the cause of Christ if
all Christians walked in his steps as lowly,
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humble gentle servants? I I pray
this morning that you would be so
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absorbed, so wrapt up in serving
the Lord Jesus Christ, in his cause,
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that you would have absolutely no time, you would have no inclination for
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anything approximating to pride. May Christ
absorb your life so much that you would
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walk in all lowliness and humility before
him and others. Let's pray
